After months of on the road grassroots campaigning, the two men vying for the American presidency finally went head to head on live national television for a night of passive aggressive digs, political frenzy, and platform promotion: the first official presidential debate. For both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, the debates are a cornerstone of campaigning, as these debates can be used as opportunities to win over voters, primarily those who are undecided.
In Romney’s case, the debates can boost the Republican Party’s enthusiasm for their respective candidate. After the first debate, Romney enjoyed an upsurge of support within the conservative base and received a higher number of approval ratings than ever before. Additionally, many media outlets lauded Romney for his confident oratory on key issues pressing upon our nation.
On the other hand, many ardent Obama supporters expressed their disappointment in the President’s lackluster disputes. Twitter’s newsfeed abounded criticisms from both sides, however expectations for Obama ran high. Evoking images from his energetic campaign in 2008 against Sen. John McCain, where Obama proved his masterful public speaking skills, the recent debate failed to live up to those expectations. UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich expressed his dissatisfaction with Obama’s arguments and retorts during the event, as he mentioned in the following tweet, “R[money] was polished, passionate, and energetic, and 100 percent wrong. O[bama] was the opposite.” While Reich recognized the President’s lack of energy, many political analysts echoed this same sentiment. However this is not the last of presidential debates, thus Obama’s future is not predetermined by any blunders he may have experienced during this first debate.
The debate offered up some important insights regarding how each candidate plans to tackle each problem that plagues our nation, including spending policies, proposed tax reform, and other pertinent matters of national interest. Tune in next week for the vice presidential debate that will surely play a key role in how this race will continue to be run.
This is a great video link that sums up debate points:
Robert Reich’s Twitter link: https://twitter.com/RBReich
Here is also a great link to get educated on whom to vote for:
http://www.usatoday.com/interactives/news/politics/candidate-match-game/…
Photo link: http://ewwatchingtv.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/presidential-debate.jpg